killed in deep-sea lore as he was, he knew the dark fury which had
swooped down upon the devilfish. It was a "killer" whale, or grampus,
the most redoubtable and implacable fighter of all the kindreds of the
sea. Jan saw its wide jaws shear off three mighty tentacles at once,
close at the base. The others writhed up hideously and fastened upon
him, but under the surging of his resistless muscles their tissues tore
apart like snapped cables. Huge masses of the monster's ghastly flesh
were bitten off, and thrown aside. Then, gaining a grip that took in the
monster's head and the roots of the tentacles, the killer shook his prey
as a bulldog might shake a fat sheep. The tentacles straightened out
slackly. Jan saw that the fight was over; and that it was high time for
him to remove from that too strenuous neighbourhood. He gave the signal
vehemently, and was drawn up, without attracting his dangerous rescuer's
notice. When Captain Jerry hauled him in over the boatside, he fell in
an unconscious heap.

When Jan came to himself he was in his bunk on the _Sarawak_. It was an
utter physical and nervous exhaustion that had overcome him. His swoon
had passed into a heavy sleep, and when he awoke he sat up with a start.
Captain Jerry was at his side, bursting with suppressed curiosity; and
the Scotch engineer was standing by the bunk.

"Waal, partner, you've delivered the goods all right!" drawled Captain
Jerry. "They're the stuff, not a doubt of it. But kind o' seemed to us
up here you were having high jinks of one kind or another down there.
What was it?"

"It was hell!" responded Jan with a shudder. Then he took hold of
Captain Jerry's hand, and felt it, as if to make sure it was real, or as
if he needed the feel of honest human flesh again to bring him to his
senses.

"Ugh!" he went on, swinging out of the bunk. "Let me get out into the
sunlight again! Let me see the sky again! I'll tell you all about it by
an' by, Jerry. But wait. Were all the packages on me, all right?"

"I reckon!" responded Captain Jerry. "There was six of 'em tied on to
you. I reckon they're worth the three hundred an' fifty thousand all
right!"

"Well, let's get away from this place quick as we can get steam up
again!" said Jan. "There's more swag down there, I guess--lots of it.
But I wouldn't go down again, nor send another man down, for all the
millions we've all of us ever heard tell of. Mr. McWha, how soon can we
be moving?"

"Ten meenutes,